


Eternally Bound

by CityLightLoveAtFirstSight



Category: Star vs. The Forces Of Evil
Genre: Awkwardness, Enemies to Lovers, M/M, Magical Backfire, Obsessive Behavior, Unhealthy Relationships, Unintentional relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-06
Updated: 2018-04-17
Packaged: 2019-04-19 07:09:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 9,060
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14231973
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CityLightLoveAtFirstSight/pseuds/CityLightLoveAtFirstSight
Summary: Set in place of Club Snubbed.After Song Day Tom was supposed to give Star and Marco some space, but when he sees her again at the Silver Bell Ball he can’t help himself. He goes back to his old habits and asks for her hand only to be rejected again.When he storms out to the rose garden, he stumbles upon Eclipsa, Queen of Darkness, who offers him one more chance to bind his soul to Star’s. However, when his spell hits Marco instead, everything comes crashing down.





	1. Chapter 1

Although he liked Star’s rough and tumble casual look the best, he had to admit that he didn’t mind seeing Star with her hair up and in that adorable little pink and purple dress of hers. Since she was distracted whispering something to Ponyhead he was able to admire everything about her again, from her slightly askew tiara to that bored expression he fell in love with long ago, in another Silver Bell Ball.

Then he had to slap himself for thinking all of that. After Song Day he swore up and down to himself that he’d finally let Star go, let her pursue whoever she wanted. If Marco was the better man, then he’d give her up to him just to make sure she was happy. But… Marco wasn’t here. At least, not yet. Star and Marco were in a relationship! He’d just make sure that it was going well. Yeah! That’s all that it was. That’s why he wanted to dance with Star first. Yep.

The stuffy procession was as dreary as it always was, pointless customs dragged out to an unnecessarily long degree. He resorted to staring at the wall and more often than not Star during the wait. Once their eyes met from across the room and they both darted their eyes away as soon as they realized. Star had Ponyhead to vent off to while he had absolutely no one. He wasn’t going to start speaking to fish boy or a literal pigeon with legs any time soon.

When the tedious formalities finally came to a stop he leaped off of his chair in his haste to get closer to Star. As always, he offered his hand to Star and she accepted amiably, much to the delight of their parents, his mom especially. Wrathmelior could crush most men with her finger, but she was the most sentimental out of all of them. He could see his mom clapping with the very tips of her fingers when they moved to the center of the dancefloor.

During their dance they had ample time to talk about what they’d been doing, but Tom soon found himself impatient with all of the meaningless drivel. He didn’t need small talk, he needed an answer. So as soon as Star finished her sentence, he cut across and had to make a split decision about what he wanted to say. What he ended up saying was “Do you love Marco?” It was a rough amalgamation of both ‘Do you think you can still love me?’ and ‘How’s it going with Marco?’

Star looked at him strangely, clearly understanding the question but not why Tom was asking it in the first place. He could feel his anger flaring up within him. It was directed at himself, but it probably wasn’t a good idea to go fiery and crazy in front of Star or the royals for that matter just because he regretted something he did. Star sighed and let the dance continue for a couple of steps before she answered.

“Don’t ask stuff like that. I… really like him and we’re dating. Let’s leave it at that.”

He knew from the start that that would be her answer. It always was. However, he still felt cheated. His mind had this way of jumping from one idea to the next, turning a non-issue like this into a weird conspiracy theory that Marco wasn’t treating Star right because she was unwilling to say she actually loved him. It was as if the rational side of his brain just shut down and his body was making him say the first thing he thought of like an idiot.

With all the confidence within, he gave a small smile and that half-lidded look he knew looked great on him. “You don’t sound that certain about Marco. Maybe we should take another shot. See if you’re really that certain about me again.”

Star threw his hands down and grunted in exasperation. She shout-whispered, trying her best not to cause a scene in front of all of the parents. Somehow it seemed to be working. “We’re not doing this, Tom. We’re not getting back together, so quit it!”

That’s all that it took. He looked down at his hands, which weren’t touching Star’s anymore. He watched as she crossed her arms, looking down on him. Looking at him like he was disgusting. He could feel his eyes turning red and nearly managed to suppress it, but after a wave of pain in his chest his skin burst with fire and he was once again consumed in his own cloud of flame.

His first instinct was to destroy something, but the worried looks thrown at him pierced through his fuzzy veil of anger to his brain. If he melted down here, the relationship between the Underworld and Mewni would break down completely. He needed to find some place to cool down. He didn’t think much of where he exited, just that he needed to do so, so he wasn’t that surprised when he launched himself out of the window, high in the sky.

He scanned the areas of Butterfly Castle and saw a small rose garden beautifully enveloped in the moonlight. His demon side called for a torture room full of lava and the screeching of the damned, but he wouldn’t find that in Mewni. He’d have to go back home for that and that would be an egregious offense to the Butterfly family, to leave with literally no warning. His human side would just have to appreciate the roses and relax in the more typical way. He flew down to the garden and landed… right on a rose bush, burning it to a crisp.

His anger flared up again but petered out instantly when he noticed a woman staring at him from a small distance away. She wore a dark purple dress and gloves and a weird wide-brimmed hat decorated with not only a plume of feathers but jagged branches. Thanks to the angle she was standing at her hat cast a shadow over her face, completely obscuring it. She didn’t seem like the typical Mewman but he dismissed her odd, almost demon-esque style choice to her being the gardener. He knew someone else had a fondness for branches in their hat, but he couldn’t place their name.

“Hey! This is your garden, right? Sorry about that!” He glanced at his shoe and brushed off the half-burnt remains of a rose that had fallen onto it.

“Not to worry. They’re just flowers.  I’m far more interested in you, young man. What’s a dapper fellow like yourself doing here in the garden instead of attending the function?” For a gardener she certainly had a crisp and elegant accent that perfectly complimented her choice of words.

He rubbed the back of his neck and considered whether or not to tell the gardener why he wasn’t at the ball anymore, only to stop all thinking when he realized that the gardener was stepping closer. As more moonlight illuminated her face, he could see spades underneath her eyes. Now he remembered who he was thinking of. If Eclipsa had the wand, her trademark parasol in hand, he would’ve recognized her immediately. But- wasn’t she trapped away in a crystal? What was she doing up and about!?

“Y-You’re Eclipsa!”

“Yes, I am, darling.” Eclipsa was very clearly amused by his sudden fear, casually walking closer. She chuckled from behind the palm of her hand when he backed away an equal distance. “Come, now. I don’t bite.”

“H-How am I supposed to k-know you’re not going to do something to me?” He hated the way his voice shook. He was in the rose garden to cool down, not replace his anger with fear! Then again, Eclipsa _was_ wandless and she didn’t take any of the opportunities to kill him or eat his soul. On the other hand, there was the mind thing, how she could creep into your mind without you noticing. Were those thoughts supporting Eclipsa from the Queen herself? Damnit, he was already compromised! He grabbed his hair and shut his eyes in frustration.

“If I really wanted to I would’ve done so already. Demons are such a fascinating race. I just wanted to speak with one of you all without causing any great alarm. Is Wrathmelior still Queen of the Underworld?”

He blinked his eyes several times upon mention of his mother’s name. Honestly, it made sense that someone as long lived as Eclipsa would know of Wrathmelior. If Eclipsa hadn’t run off with a monster it was likely she would’ve settled down with a demon. Combine all of that with her status as Queen of Darkness and he wouldn’t put it past her to be on good terms with his mother. “Y-Yeah?”

Eclipsa’s perfectly painted lips quirked up into a satisfied smile. “Then you must be her son. I really must speak with her sometime, but I’d like to speak with _you_ in greater detail. Follow me. Or don’t, if you think I’m the evil woman people say I am.”

Eclipsa leisurely turned around and strolled over to a bench that was nearby. Maybe it was a form of club snubbing, but seeing her simply relax on the bench without any indication that she was waiting for him made him want to go over. She didn’t seem that evil. In fact, she was giving him a chance to run away right now. He couldn’t believe he was doing this, but he was walking over to her.

He sat down awkwardly next to the former Queen, who continued to stare out at the roses. He waited anxiously for her to say something, but as he followed her example and focused on the flowers, he could feel himself cooling down, dissipating not only the anger at the back of his mind, but the fear he had of encountering the supposedly most dangerous Mewman Queen to exist. It was only then that Eclipsa spoke.

“Now. What’s troubling you?”

“Huh?” He looked at her incredulously. So the mind thing probably wasn’t true, but how did she figure out that he’d been having problems? “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Eclipsa chuckled for a few seconds before she turned her head to him. “You arrived wrapped in flame and with vivid red eyes. You’ve already proven that that isn’t your natural state. Now, what is her name?”

“Wait, wait, wait. How did you know about me and Star?”

“So her name is Star. That’s good to know.”

He groaned and rubbed his face with irritation. Why was he even talking about Star with Eclipsa? Even though she was a Butterfly she was supposed to be Star’s like… Star’s great-great-great-great-great grandmother or something. “It’s stupid. Don’t worry about it.” He’d have to deal with walking out of the ball and explaining it to Star while dodging the fact that he met her ancestor.

“Does Star not like you? Have you told her of your affection?”

“Too many times.” He leaned back against the bench, suddenly feeling drained. “I think that’s the problem. We used to be boyfriend and girlfriend but now she has this guy called Marco. I was going to use the Blood Moon to keep her to myself, but Marco ruined everything and stole the moment from me. If only there was a spell that could… make her fall in love with me! Or bind her soul to mine!”

“Are you sure that’s what you want?”

“Huh? Oh, uh, yeah. Why?”

“Love magic is not my area of expertise and I will warn you that love is not a guarantee, but I can definitely bind her soul to yours. 667 years is a strong bond to break, but it can be broken.” Eclipsa delicately rubbed her gloved hand underneath her chin. “The spell you seek requires a magical contract. A rather strong one, at that. I’d usually only offer this to another Queen such as I, but I can tell that you’re quite the adept magician.” She moved her hands down to her lap. “The price you pay will be high, however. As soon as the spell hits your target you have to give me something in return.”

Obviously. As a half-demon he would know all about contracts and bargains, although the kind he was accustomed to was more like a legal document than the reality-shaping magical contract Eclipsa was offering. Nonetheless the surprise that she already had a spell in mind for him wore off and he was willing to bargain. “Well, what do you want?”

“To overcome the Blood Moon I think having all of the diplomatic powers of an Underworld royal should be enough. You don’t even have to formally instate me.”

He stood up in shock, staring into Eclipsa’s stony face for any indication that what she said was a joke. When Eclipsa’s expression didn’t change, Tom could swear he was about to have a heart attack. Heart attacks weren’t really supposed to happen to residents of the Underworld. He knew the Blood Moon was powerful, but that was asking for too much, wasn’t it?

“You should know better than anyone that contracts are proportionate to what they’re asking for.” Eclipsa adjusted her poofy hair with the same calm elegance she’d been exuding the entire conversation. “I just want to observe up close how you demons work without fear of outside intervention, that’s all. I promise not to steer your kingdom into ruin. I’d let that happen naturally.”

“You don’t understand.”  He may have been directly in the line of succession and given a great number of privileges that he often made use of, but he didn’t think crowning the former Queen of Mewni as an unofficial Underworld royal was one of the things he could do. “I’m just a prince!”

“A magical contract of this size should be able to overcome any obstacle. I’d be expending quite a bit of energy doing this, you know.” Eclipsa sighed and smoothed down her dress before standing up. “An offer like this is not one that is easily replicated. I’d hazard a guess and say that in roughly a minute or so the assorted royals will find us, give you a solid scolding and throw me into the dungeon.” She removed her glove and stuck her darkness-stained hand out toward him, the brim of her hat casting an ominous shadow against the top half of her face. “Are you willing?”

A part of him, likely his human half, was screaming at him that Star should be with whoever she wanted and that it wasn’t his place to decide who, especially with dark magic. His demon half was a lot louder though, telling him to use every opportunity to secure Star with a man that she actually deserved. He took one last deep breath, nodded and grabbed Eclipsa’s hand.

For a brief moment he could see purple ribbons erupting from where their hands met, but he couldn’t keep his eyes on them because his eyes fell shut unwillingly. There was power, so much power, dancing over his fingertips and burning into his arm with each wind of the ribbon. _This_ was the power of a Queen who dabbled in dark magic. It was overwhelming, utterly pervasive, reaching to the very core of his heart before spreading out across his entire body. He could feel some kind of symbol etched into his cheeks like a Butterfly, but they didn’t feel like spades. They were… pentagrams?

Before he could question it further the rush of power stopped and their hands separated. He opened his eyes up again just as Eclipsa leaned forward to whisper into his ear. He would’ve thought that the magical contract would’ve zapped the information into his brain, but it was honestly kind of refreshing to see that Eclipsa still had to do something as menial as explain the spell to him.

As soon as she finished, though, she straightened up quickly and looked behind her in fear. “They’re here.” In complete contrast to the image she’d carefully cultivated, she dove into the bushes. It was silly but practical, something that Star would do without explanation or a moment’s hesitation. Now he could see the resemblance. Before dealing with the intruder he touched his cheeks and made sure that the pentagrams had faded from them before he even responded to the demanding yells from whoever found him.

The royal yeller was actually his dad, Dave. It was disappointing that it wasn’t Star, but given the circumstances and the possibility of a number of other royals including but not limited to King or Queen Butterfly, one of the pigeons or worst of all his mom, he was glad to see his dad instead. It still stung since his dad got as mad as he did if not madder, but at least he wasn't a foreign dignitary who cared more about their kingdom than him. After carefully explaining the situation, cutting out the part where he made a contract with the Queen of Darkness, Dave led him back to the ballroom and apologized formally on the Underworld’s behalf.

Somehow Marco had popped up, lurking from behind the curtains behind the gathering of parents. He was probably trying to be sneaky but he really wasn't, even if the royals hadn't noticed him yet. Tom chuckled to himself. Star was probably taking too much time to find him, so she called on Marco to help in the search and she hadn’t had the time to transport him back to the human dimension. Tom rolled his eyes at nothing and pretended that Marco wasn’t there.

After the entire ‘misunderstanding’ was cleared he and Star took to dancing together again. It was a shame that he couldn’t use the spell here. It was the perfect distance. He took the initiative and apologized to Star first, before she got angry at him and permanently soured the relationship between the Underworld and Mewni, not to mention the relationship they were about to have. A bit of suave talk and wishing the best for her and Marco was all that it took for Star to trust him again… is what he wanted to say, but she was incredibly stubborn and paranoid that he was still going for her, which he was. But he lied through his teeth anyway and managed to escape on talking terms with her.

After the dance they had the opportunity to leave the ballroom for a while, though he did notice Marco staring at him from the curtains when he made a beeline for Star. Putting Marco at the back of his head, he slowly led Star as they talked to a secluded place where it was only appropriate for him to mark the beginning of their new and improved relationship, in the rose garden and under the moon. It wasn’t the blood red kind he had hoped for ages ago, but the shadows beckoned to him, whispered sweet nothings into his ears and made him focus on Star and Star only.

It was perfect. Star silhouetted against the moonlight, faced away from him. He pointed his hand at her and began to mutter the spell. His cheeks glowed with the light of the pentagrams that had suddenly reappeared.

“I call the darkness unto me, to turn faded love into endless glee. Ancient spirits unawoken, protect these chains so they may not be broken.” Clouds spontaneously formed around the entire area, but Star was too focused on what she was saying to notice. His voice gradually rose as he neared the end of the incantation. “To my eternal love I pledge my soul, to unite ourselves as one solid whole, I summon powers of endless bind so that our hearts may forever be entwined!”

Star turned around, but it was already too late. He watched with triumphant excitement as the red and purple beam shot straight and true, right for Star’s heart. For a few milliseconds all sound was drowned out except his own heartbeat, but when he saw something enter his field of vision he realized he heard _screaming_. Not only that, it was Marco’s voice. “STAR, WATCH OUT!”

No. Nononono. This couldn’t be happening. Marco couldn’t ruin yet another one of his plans. His eyes reddened and he could swear his anger fueled the magic, let it fly just a little bit faster, so he concentrated everything he had on it. His contract with Eclipsa wouldn't be gone until he hit something, but it would be impossible to fulfill if Marco never let him get to Star. It was now or never.

Three. Marco was still running. Two. Star was glancing at Marco. One. The beam was right there-!

He fell backwards onto his butt and shielded his eyes from the blinding explosion of light. He did it! He hit Star! He scrambled onto his feet and watched as a representation of his soul left him, patterned after a galaxy except instead of pinks and purples there were shades of red. The image moved steadily toward the pillar of light that was emanating from the blast site. But there was something wrong. The other image didn’t look like Star’s. It didn’t feel like Star’s.

He rubbed his eyes and ran closer, frowning when he realized whose soul was drifting toward his. “No. Way.”

This wasn’t what he asked for. He clearly told Eclipsa that he wanted Star’s soul, not Marco’s! In a last ditch effort to stop the proceedings, he tried a number of spells off of the top of his head, but they all bounced harmlessly off of the images and fell onto the surrounding garden, further ruining it.

When the two souls met there was initially a bit of resistance, Marco’s greenish galaxy briefly flashing red like the Blood Moon, but just as Eclipsa had stated their combined powers broke through and the two souls combined. The result was a brilliant yellow and a figure that looked like both of them, but the figure soon curled up into a fetal position and morphed into a perfect ball of yellow light. The ball then unfurled, showing off the wings of a great yellow butterfly chained with skulls that bore spade marks on the bony cheeks.

He shouldn’t have pushed himself. He shouldn’t have messed with dark magic. He shouldn’t have tried to go for Star again.

Now his soul was eternally bound to Marco’s.


	2. Chapter 2

He didn’t have much time to gawk at the butterfly because, before he knew it, there were narwhals flying at his face. He barely dodged being speared straight through by one narwhal, only to run right into another’s blubbery side. The narwhal he hit stopped in place, looked at him and smacked him with its tail. He was on the receiving end of Star’s narwhal blasts a few times but he never got over the pain or worse, how _wet_ it was.

“RAINBOW FIST PUNCH!”

Before he even had the chance to recover from the narwhal attack his stomach was pummeled with rainbow light, shooting him forward until he crashed painfully onto the ground, on his back. If his suit wasn’t ruined before, it was ruined now. He couldn’t open his eyes, his ears were ringing, everything ached and he was either too drained from Star’s attacks or too drained from casting Eclipsa’s spell because he couldn’t get up, much less get angry again.

He heard Star’s shrill shrieking again, followed by a heavy weight crashing onto his stomach. His eyes flew open and he came face to face with Star, who had one fist raised menacingly and the wand in the other. He knew he’d have to explain before Star killed him. Or froze him. Or tossed him into the abyss. Honestly, who knew with Star? “W-Wait! I can explain!”

“Then why aren’t you explaining!?” Star’s fist came down on his face while he was opening his mouth, Star’s instincts shining through much more than her logic. After a solid half a minute or so with no indication of Star stopping, he figured out that he’d just have to say what he needed to say while his face was being beaten in.

“It’s- because-” Since Star had a certain rhythm he could only squeeze in one word between every round of her fist. “I- can’t- speak- while- you’re- punching- my- face!”

Star paused, her vicious face mellowing into sheepish regret. “Oh yeah. Sorry about that.” She bit her lip and looked away before her eyes snapped back onto him. “What the heck is going on, Tom!?” She pointed the wand at him, glowing with a threatening pink.

Lying at this point was utterly useless so, even though it pained him, he spilled everything then and there. “I tried to make you fall in love with me again. Obviously it didn’t work and it hit Marco instead. I guess… I made Marco into Tomfan13 or something. I don’t want to date him!”

“Wait, what happened to the whole Blood Moon business? You know, two souls together forever? Don’t tell me you have a secret demon spell conveniently related to the Blood Moon. You could’ve saved yourself a _lot_ of trouble if you just went for the spell instead of asking me out.”

“For your information, I worked really hard on organizing that ball so you’d appreciate it! Do you know how picky those demons were?” His hands spurted with pathetic sparks. Damnit, he wasn’t this weak since he brought Mackie Hand from the dead. And even then the necromancy wasn’t perfect. “Whatever. I… I met Eclipsa.”

“YOU WHAT?” Star jumped off of him and waved her wand around randomly, as if she was trying to deflect the evil on him or something. “We need to call my mom, like right now!” She reached into her pocket and pulled out her mobile mirror, the one thing that made him even more panicked.

Even if he had any intention of hiding Eclipsa’s contract with Star, which he didn’t, Moon and the Magic High Commission would see through him within seconds. Anything with Eclipsa was taboo; even just meeting her would subject you to a mandatory search, but forming a contract with her so you could force a relationship with the Princess of Mewni? He’d be thrown into a crystal without trial. And really, he had to admit to himself that he deserved it.

“Don’t do it! The spell I used was dark magic. The reason it got through the Blood Moon was… because I made a contract with Eclipsa.”

The last thing he saw before he blacked out was a disturbed-looking Star holding up her wand and a flash of pink.

When he woke up, it wasn’t a pleasant experience. For one, he couldn’t move any of his limbs. It wasn’t the magical ice prison Star liked to trap him in, so that was good. That was the most annoying because he either had to wait for someone to rescue him or wait for the ice to thaw. Fire demons and water weren’t supposed to mix. Plus too much exposure to water totally ruined his hair. Hairspray wasn’t cheap. After feeling out his bonds he decided it was just regular rope, something he could burn through if necessary.

It would’ve been much easier to figure out what he was trapped in if he weren’t blindfolded. Whoever kidnapped him, probably Star and Marco, made sure to blindfold his third eye as well. Since he couldn’t see his sense of smell was heightened and oh boy did it stink. There were worse scents in the Underworld, much better at calming him down, but the smell here did help a little. He could smell warnicorn bones, Mewnian termytes and the usual mound of dirty clothes. Question is, where would he be able to smell all of those things in the same place?

Since there were no sounds from outside he decided to free himself with one burst of fire, which incinerated everything that was keeping him bound. It felt so good to have his powers back to normal, not to mention being able to move. If bondage and torture wasn’t an Underworld past time he would’ve been sore in so many places, except- yeah, his face still hurt. He touched his cheeks gingerly and winced at how swollen they were. Star could be over-reliant on magic, but she still hit ridiculously hard.

At first he didn’t recognize what he was looking at because there was so much stuff that didn’t belong together. Viking helmets with unicycles, hives of magical bees, a bubble toaster- at first he thought he was at Quest Buy due to the ridiculous disorganization, but even Quest Buy had shelves. This was absolute chaos. He only figured out where he was when he turned around and spotted a door out of the mess.

He walked toward it and was about to turn the knob when he heard a door from the room beyond slammed shut, followed by Star and Marco’s panicked voices. They were too quiet to hear for roughly a minute before they got way too loud, yelling at each other about sensitive information- namely that they’d kidnapped him. Since there were little slits through the door he peeked through them, catching a view of Star and Marco together on the bed.

“We can’t figure out how badly the spell affected you unless you share your feelings, Marco!”

“That’s the thing!” Marco rubbed his face. “I don’t know how my feelings work! I still really like you. I know that much for sure.”

Tom nearly blew his cover by burning a hole through the door when he saw Star blushing, but thankfully she spoke before he had to resort to melting Marco’s face off. “Okay. Alright. The important thing here is how you feel about Tom! Does your heart flutter every time you hear his name? Do you feel anything when you look at his face or think about him or hear his voice?”

Well, duh. Forget the spell, Tom was irresistible to everyone except Star. Even if they weren’t satisfied with his gorgeous appearance, he was a prince, a ping pong champion, had a signed photograph with Love Sentence’s own Justin Towers and had the most awesome powers ever. The only thing someone could possibly hate him over would be his anger issues. He crossed his arms and waited to hear Marco gushing over him.

“Ew, no.” Tom couldn’t believe what he heard so he had to look through the slits again to make sure Marco was saying what he thought he was saying. “The whole Mackie Hand thing was cool, but he _did_ try to use me to graduate from anger counseling.” Alright that was true, he could be a bit manipulative, but there was nothing else. “There’s also the part where he literally made a magical contract because he couldn’t get over us dating.” Damn. It.

“No, no, no, Marco. You can’t judge him based on what he did! We already do that! You have to think about it more physically!”

“Well.”  Tom stifled the fire that had formed in his hands and listened in again. Marco would definitely compliment him now. “His third eye kind of creeps me out, his demon voice scares me, he always smells like sulfur and hairspray, I don’t understand why he has two holes on his left ear but only ever wears one earring on the right, I don’t understand why all of the edges on his shirt have to be jagged, I can’t figure out if those lines on his face are eyeliner or birthmarks… Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Woah, Marco. You got a _lot_ more honest than usual there. Hey, do you hear something?”

He was boiling, absolutely filled to the brim with hatred. It was a good thing Brian wasn’t around because He couldn’t take it anymore. He kicked the door open and flew out of it with blasts of fire, stopping right in front of Marco. He was at that level of anger where he didn’t even notice that he had his demonic voice on. **“That’s enough.”**

Marco screamed but dropped into a karate stance afterward, Star similarly skirting away with a graceful leap. He was outnumbered two to one and no amount of anger he had would be enough to overcome them, even if he was really, really mad at Marco. He wasn’t usually that rude, right? He stopped levitating, extinguished himself and even got his eyes back to normal when he got closer to Marco.

 **“Friend! Buddy! Old pal!”** He coughed. Missed the voice. “I don’t mean to hurt you. Even though your face looks really punchable right now, I’m not gonna do it! Since we’re all friends here I just wanted to know,” Anger dripped into his words again. “Why you thought it was a good idea to kidnap me!”

To his surprise, Star wasn’t the one who answered. In fact, Marco stomped right up to him. “Big talk coming from somebody who wanted to take Star hostage for the rest of her life!”

“Well it didn’t work, did it? You’re supposed to be bound to me now! Aren’t you supposed to be worshipping the ground I walk on? I thought you would at least be nice to me. I’m starting to think I was just cheated out of what I asked for! The contract was a scam!”

“If you weren’t so full of yourself then you’d notice that your hands are messed up and you messed with dark magic even if it didn’t work the way you wanted it to!”

He paused to look at his hands, which were now black up until his wrist. The tips of his fingers were pitch black before they faded into a dark purple before that color faded into his normal pink skin tone. It wasn’t nearly as bad as Eclipsa’s, whose darkness spread up the majority of her arm. That didn’t change the fact that Marco was right, though. How annoying.

Just as he was about to come up with another comeback, he heard Ponyhead. Ponyhead could NOT know about what happened to him. That damn disembodied horse didn’t know how to keep her mouth shut. What was she doing here? Marco took note of his pause and tried to say something, but Tom stopped him with a quick “Shut up.”

The source was Star’s mirror and for that matter, Star was in front of it. Once Marco realized who Star was talking to, they had a momentary truce as they snuck closer and closer, just out of the sight of both Star and the mirror. Considering how loud Ponyhead was, they didn’t really need to get closer at all.

“Ugh, how have you not heard of this, girl? Foe Yay! You know! It’s this thing where two people hate each other a lot so they’re secretly in love. Haven’t you seen the previews for Bam Ui Pati? Obviously the vampire’s gonna be with the idol but that doesn’t stop people from pairing vampire dude with the hot doctor.”

Star chimed in, much more focused with that weird Korean drama than the biggest issue. Wait, why was she even talking to Ponyhead in the first place? Did she really believe that ‘foe yay’ stuff? “I thought he was a nurse.”

“Same difference! Look, girl, I have to catch you later. I don’t know why you wanted my opinion about a suspiciously specific relationship that doesn’t exist between two guys named Tim and Mauro, but good luck with that!”

As the mirror’s feed cut out Tom and Marco stood behind Star with their arms crossed. When Star turned around and winced at their presence, Tom and Marco shared a glance and a nod. Marco sighed and shook his head, his brown hair flopping with the motion.

“Star, you know better than to listen to Ponyhead about these things. Me and Tom are not secret lovers and we never will be. We don’t even like each other! Let’s focus on the task at hand and figure out how to break this spell.”

It was his turn to shake his head, though he shoved Marco aside for extra emphasis. “He’s right that we don’t like each other, but the spell likely can’t be broken by anyone other than Eclipsa. We don’t need to figure anything out, we just need to talk to her.”

Marco shoved him back and stepped closer to Star. “If he had given me a few seconds, Tom would’ve known that that was my plan anyway. I don’t think he even knows where she is!”

“Of course I know where she is!” He snapped back. “She’s in the Mewni Castle rose garden, where we could’ve sorted this out immediately instead of bringing me here for no reason!”

Tom didn’t notice it, but Star muttered something to herself as she ripped open a portal to Mewni with dimensional scissors. “Definitely foe yay.”


	3. Chapter 3

The Mewni Castle’s Rose Garden was the quietest spot in all of Mewni, largely ignored by the King’s food and party driven rampages, strategically unimportant and most of all secure within the castle walls. It was no surprise that it was the favorite spot of many past Queens, who often came there to enjoy the silence and the scent of roses.

However, there was none to be had today. Even while they strolled out of the portal, Tom and Marco were at each other’s throats, hovering just beneath the point of violence but held back by Star’s presence. The flowery scent that blanketed the garden was overpowered by the odor of sulfur whenever Marco decided to be particularly snarky, Tom’s shoes left heated black footprints as they walked.

They couldn’t argue for very long since Star turned around when they reached the center of the garden, near a lovely little fountain that looked ideal for a date. If only Marco hadn’t blocked the stupid spell, Tom would’ve been able to sit there and enjoy Star’s company. Marco was so frustrating.

Tom knew what Star would ask of the both of them before she even finished the sentence, flying off in a random direction only to stop mid-flight when he realized that Marco was heading in the same area. He grumbled and picked another corner, at first searching gently for Eclipsa, doing his best not to harm the flowers. That went out of the window quickly when his hands kept getting caught on the prickles. Not only were they huge indicators that he used powerful dark magic, now they were hard to see in dark places! And demons loved dark places when there was no magma around!

Frustration upon frustration piled up and he saw that Star was too far away to notice, so he decided to cheat a little, snapping his fingers and incinerating one of the bushes. Marco saw what he did, the brat, but didn’t make any move to stop him. As time passed he got braver until he was openly flying around, scorching a path through not only the bushes but the grass as well. He was a bit too lazy to shut it off between each bush, so he only switched it off when Marco suddenly got into his path.

“What’s going on?” He asked as he floated to the ground. “Did you find her?”

“Uh, no. I just don’t think you should be looking for her like that.”

“What do you mean?”

Marco sighed and pointed. “Look behind you.”

He looked behind him, at the half-black half-green corner he’d been wreaking havoc on, crispy leafless bushes collapsing into ash when the wind blew. Sure, it didn’t look like the rest of the garden, but it wasn’t that bad. You could never have too much fire. In fact, the royalty should clearly invest in growing hell roses. Horrifying black petaled flowers with eyes in them that had the tendency to grow into tentacle-wielding flower dryad creatures. He shrugged and turned back to Marco.

“Looks good to me.”

“You’re joking, right?”

Within moments they were squabbling again, although Tom had a lot less patience for everything so he started chasing Marco with the same stream of fire he’d been using to mow down the greenery. By the time Star realized what was happening and froze him in his tracks, half of the garden was destroyed. Before he knew it, his block of ice was sat awkwardly at the edge of the fountain. Next to him was Star, hair ragged and with multiple bushes’ worth of branches in her hair and on the other side Marco, blackened hoodie smoking from a recently put out fire.

He thawed out quickly, thankfully, but Star told him the bad news. She searched her half of the garden and it was clear that Eclipsa couldn’t be hiding in the barren wasteland that was Tom and Marco’s half, so they had nothing to go off of. Tom sighed and scanned the skyline, until he realized that there was something odd right behind them, stretching high above the rose garden.

 “Hey, what’s that?”

“That’s the Rose Tower. That thing’s been condemned _forever_.”

Looking at it, it made sense to see why that thing was condemned. The tower’s roof was shattered in places, the flag and flower atop it were drooping, moss grew near its peak and most disturbingly huge vines with wickedly sharp spikes wrapped around it. Replace the greenery with fire and the vines with tentacles and you had a tower straight out of the Underworld. From what Eclipsa said, she’d been to the Underworld before. Perhaps her tastes were similar to a demon’s? She wasn’t averse to diving into bushes for cover, though that could just be a Butterfly family thing.

“Don’t you think that maybe… Eclipsa’s hiding up there and we just haven’t checked?”

Marco shrugged. “It’s worth a shot. Question is, how are we going to get up- Hey!”

Star had apparently called up Cloudy without warning, shooting off toward the tower without consulting either of them. Tom caught only a glimpse of her face before she zoomed off wordlessly and strangely, she wasn’t angry or disappointed or anything usual. She was resolute. He couldn’t remember which ancestor it was, but it was as if she was off to storm St. Olga’s singlehandedly even though all they were doing was talking to Eclipsa. Unless… No, she couldn’t possibly be thinking of fighting her ancestor, right?

He couldn’t take the chance either way.

He lifted himself up with pillars of fire, just about to chase after Star when he heard Marco’s shouting. What nonsense was he blabbering about now? He rolled his eyes and cut the fire off, landing softly on the grass only to hear what really should’ve been obvious.

“I can’t fly!”

Considering the fact that there was no guarantee that the tower had a functional door since it was condemned, or had a door in the first place, Marco had every right to be mad. It wasn’t Star that was part of the contract after all and yet she sped off as if she were the one who signed it herself.

Tom sighed and pointed behind him with his thumb. “Get on my back.”

Marco got closer to him and was about one or two seconds away from being roasted since Tom once again wreathed himself with fire, burning hot, eager to pursue Star. However, when he didn’t feel Marco’s weight on his back, he looked back at Marco questioningly.

“Are you seriously trying to kill me right now?”

“Huh?” Tom looked at himself briefly, noting that his suit was past being dirty, it was absolutely destroyed. There were suspicious pink stains with what looked like strawberry mush, cuts and tears sprinkled all over his outfit, mostly over his stomach and weirdest of all muddy pawprints. “Is it because my suit is dirty? It’s you and Star’s fault it’s like this, not mine.”

Marco pinched the bridge of his nose. “No! I might as well just walk there. It’s bad enough that I have to cling on to you, but I can’t even do that when you’re on-”

“Fire.” Tom nodded sheepishly and put himself out, making sure to shake himself a bit to get rid of the residual heat. “I honestly wasn’t thinking about that. Let’s just have a truce until we can get Eclipsa to break the spell. I don’t have a reason to kill you anyway.” He couldn’t tack on the last part of the speech he was going to say, ‘Star’s probably going to choose you.’

“Fine. Truce!” Marco jumped onto his back and awkwardly threw his hands around Tom’s neck and shoulders. Tom expected him to wrap his arms around his midsection, but hey. He didn’t exactly have time to waste being picky while he was supposed to be chasing Star. “But as soon as we get this spell broken we’re going right back to hating each other.”

“Gee, how nice of you.” Tom replied sarcastically, levitating slowly up into the air. Levitation wasn’t his preferred medium of travel. It _could_ go as fast as his fire flying if he really tried hard enough, but it was a lot shakier since he didn’t really practice it. He couldn’t drop his ‘cargo’ so he had to take it slow.

Unfortunately, that meant he’d be prolonging his contact with Marco, something he regretted about half of the way there. It was awkward enough having Marco’s face next to his, not to mention the whole arms around the shoulders thing and definitely the silence between them- but why did Marco have to sweat so much? He could feel a wet spot right on his back, like a narwhal with less blubber.

The ice earlier was bad enough to seep through into the tip of his hair, causing it to droop a little and it spurred the fire within him to come out and- Keep calm! Keep calm, Tom. He could still win Star, but not if he accidentally cooked Marco or dropped him. He just had to remember what Brian taught him. Logical questioning.

“Marco, why are you so wet?”

“You’re kind of hot.” They both blinked in unison and looked uncertainly at each other before Marco bit his lip and rushed to explain. “I mean, you’re literally hot. That doesn’t sound any better- you give off a lot of heat!”

“You know, I wish I had a tape recorder. ‘You’re literally hot.’ You have the hots for me, don’t you, Marco? The spell’s working.”

“If you weren’t the only thing between me and death I would hit you.”

Tom laughed the rest of the way there, not minding the sweat when he squeezed an embarrassing moment out of Marco. It wasn’t that he liked the way Marco said it, underlying sweetness combined with Marco’s signature matter-of-factness. Definitely not. It was just because it was embarrassing. He totally didn’t want to hear Marco say his name with the same tone of voice.

Marco’s voice aside, they rushed into the tower to see Star calmly drinking tea with Eclipsa on a ratty old bed surrounded by horrible rat-fly mutations. He and Marco stared at the sight for a good few seconds before they both rushed forward, screaming ‘STAR!’ as they did so. They both skidded to a stop when Eclipsa stood up, wary of her suspicious smile and now casual appearance.

When Tom had first seen her she had her hat on and her hair up, but she was a lot less threatening now that her hat was off and her hair was down. Eclipsa’s poofy hairstyle came from a great deal of hair simply bunched up together and likely pinned down, because it came down to her back when loose. That didn’t make her any less threatening, since his hands throbbed painfully at the sight of her. The issue with Star and whatever they talked about could come later. First he had to deal with the contract he was cheated out of.

Eclipsa didn’t back down in the slightest, probably because she seemed to have sorted things out with Star already, and she had the wand at her disposal. “I never thought that this would be the Star you were after!” Her face fell a little. “My granddaughter many generations over. That’s what they’re saying.”  She blinked a few times and straightened up again. “Regardless, how did the spell go?”

“It hit the wrong person and I need you to break the spell. Should be simple, right? Both parties just have to agree.” That’s how demon contracts worked.

“I’m afraid magical contracts are much more fickle than that. After all, ours was fulfilled. I gave you the power you needed and all of the conditions were met for a successful start to the bonding.”

He scratched his head in complete confusion. “Uh, no? I told you I wanted Star! Star Butterfly! Not this guy!” He gestured in exasperation to Marco who turned away shyly. “I hit him by mistake and there was this weird explosion and our souls started flying at each other-”

“Really?” Eclipsa went right up into his face, eyes squeezing as she observed him up close. “How far along are they? Have they moved significantly at any point?”

“W-Well, they kind of just… They moved really quickly all the way through. They kind of melted together after three minutes.”

“Three minutes!?”

Her composure broke and she scurried over to the window, likely to gather her thoughts while gazing over the roses and the fountain. Everybody else stood stock still, even Star who up until that point was sipping noisily, nearly gulping down her black tea. When Eclipsa turned around she looked pressed, arms locked firmly to her sides.

“I don’t know what to say to you, children, but…” Eclipsa cleared her throat. “That is the fastest bonding I have ever seen or heard of. The level of compatibility between you two is astonishing.”

He spotted Star’s disappointed expression and laughed nervously, forcing Marco to laugh with him by desperately grinding his elbow into Marco’s side. “Have you _seen_ what we’ve done to each other before? I put demon curses on him! I used him to get what I wanted! I kicked his butt at ping pong!”

Eclipsa simply regarded him with the same elegance of a mother looking down on a tumultuous child. “And what have you done for Star recently?”

“W-Well…” Star had already put her teacup down onto the bed, staring out of a completely different window. He had no idea what she was thinking about or how she was taking in the entire situation. It must’ve felt horrible, hearing that both of her main prospects for boyfriend were gone. “I did the contract. And… and… the contract’s more than enough! I sold my soul away for her!”

A shake of the head from Eclipsa preceded a small giggle. “You did no such thing. The bonding is a slow and arduous process, with unwilling souls taking many years before they even get close to each other. If the both of you were as unwilling as you said you are, with the Blood Moon’s interference as it is, Marco would die long before his soul was ever bonded to yours.” She shrugged. “Even eager lovers would take days. Tom Lucitor and Marco Diaz, I’m afraid the both of you were meant for each other.”

He rushed over to Star and shook her shoulder, trying desperately to comfort her, but his heart broke a little when he saw that Star wasn’t even crying. She looked alright, no, more than that, _accepting_. No. Nononono. The magic must have changed her or something. She, like all teenage girls, wanted a boyfriend! This didn’t make any sense!

“Star?” He hated how his voice cracked on the single syllable.

Before Star could answer, Eclipsa’s piped up yet again. Her smile had warped into a smaller, more sinister frown.  Despite not having her hat it seemed like her face was once again lit ominously. “There is but one way to break the contract, but only another Queen or the holder of the wand can make use of it.”

Star turned around and gazed at her wand uncertainly, looking between Tom and Marco repeatedly. She took a deep, shuddering breath and shut her eyes. “I just want both of you to be happy. I’ve already used dark magic, what’s a little bit more to help my best friends?”

He watched as Eclipsa took off her glove again, black and purple veins clawing up her arm, a sharp contrast to Star’s smooth, untouched skin. He wanted the contract to be broken. He wanted to chase after Star. He wanted to go back to just hating Marco and not feeling weird around him. But not like this. Star was never meant to be the one who lost anything. Moments before Star’s hand met Eclipsa’s, he screamed.

“NO!”

In a flash Star was on the ground, though Tom hadn’t moved an inch yet. Marco was the one who acted this time, once again charging blindly to protect her. It was what caused the problem in the first place, but Tom had to begrudgingly admit that it helped now.

Marco stood up and helped Star back up, dusting his hoodie off when he did so. “Dark magic isn’t the answer. Me and Tom will figure something out. It’s not like we have to become lovers, right?” Marco’s eyes went wide and he looked toward the Queen of Darkness. “ _Right?_ ”

“Of course not. It’s very unlikely that you won’t, though.” She walked back to her bed and started reaching for a pile of chocolate bars in the corner. “The longer you stay together the more honest to each other you will be. I don’t often give advice, but if I were in your shoes I’d run off and get married immediately.” She laughed girlishly. “That was a joke.”

Tom eyed Marco worriedly. This doofus was supposed to be the one he was going to become more honest with? And, although she called it a joke, the one Eclipsa was implying he’d marry eventually? This was going to be very difficult.

“Yeah, it wasn’t a very good one.”


End file.
